The media response to the new Icelandic Government

A recent headline in the Washington Post remarks on the new Icelandic government „Iceland ousted one leader named in the Panma Papers, but ended up with another one on the list” The article sites that the Panama Papers had made it into headlines around the world but the biggest impact was probably felt in Iceland, resulting in the then prime minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson’s resignation this spring. The article remarks that despite the upheaval in Iceland in the wake of the Panama leak, Iceland again finds it self with a prime minister whos name was in the leak. Bjarni Benidiktsson, the new prime minister was also to be found in the panama papers in relations to an offshore account and company called Falson & Co. in the African island of Seychelles, a known tax haven. The article recites the events in the wake of the Panama Leak and the consequence protests, early elections and the drawn out deliberations to form a new government.

The Washington Post isn’t the only media to react on the new government and new head of state. The New York Times coments on the lengthy process of forming the new government and quotes that “everybody is just relieved that we have a government and that there is somebody to rule the country” and speculates about the effect of the election of the EU referendum process. And the Independent also speculates about the status of the EU negotiations, pointing out that the conservative Independence party who is officially EU skeptic and against Iceland’s full membership of the EU holds 21 seats in the government, a huge.

Featured image is by Guðmundur D Haraldsson and shows the Cabinet of Iceland